Navarro's Chardonnay Table Wine was first produced three decades ago from leftover lots that were either excess to our varietal bottlings or didn't meet Navarro's varietal standards. Times have changed. We now have a large audience for good, distinctive and inexpensive Chardonnay crafted for everyday drinking which meet three parameters: quality, personality and price. To meet the quality goal, we crush, ferment and age more Chardonnay than we need so that there are plenty of good lots to choose from. We augment estate grown grapes with interesting Chardonnay purchased from neighbors with whom we have long term relationships. The Reserve is fermented in new barrels but the Table Wine ferments in seasoned French oak barrels to help keep costs under control. We release the Table Wine six months earlier than the Reserve and it sells out during the holidays.

We barrel ferment our Chardonnay Table Wine, just like Navarro's Première Reserve. Because both wines undergo a secondary fermentation, they share inviting buttery aromas and flavors.

Take an authentic harvest tour! Bins of our neighbor's Chardonnay await de-stemming. We've been purchasing grapes for over thirty years from our neighbors, the Ordways, with whom we share a mile long fence. Their Chardonnay fields are close to Navarro's so the flavors are engaging and typical of our region.

We save by not pouring samples all year and truth be told, most is sold at the full case bargain price. This vintage's cuvée is 70% from Anderson Valley with a flavor profile of citrus and pear. Thirty percent is from the warmer Potter Valley, and its flavor profile is of stone-fruit. The 2009 bottling has distinctive Mendocino citrus-pear-apple fruit flavors with a buttery background hinting of spice and vanilla. Not to be confused with innocuous supermarket plonk, it is dry, clean, flavorful and definitively Mendocino.